Historical Sketch of Buddhism and Islam in West Turkistan

Historically, Buddhism was found in all five former Soviet Central Asian Republics that
constitute West Turkistan: Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan. It
initially spread in the first century BCE from Gandhara (Pakistan) and Afghanistan to the kingdoms
of Parthia
[1] and Bactria. Turkmenistan and
northeastern Iran constituted the kingdom of Parthia; while southern Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and
northern Afghanistan constituted the kingdom of Bactria
[2].

In the seventh century, when the Turkic people from Mongolia conquered most of Central Asia,
Buddhism spread from the Sogdians and from Kashgar/Khotan in southern East Turkistan to the Taraz
(Talas) River valley in southern Kazakhstan and the Chu River valley in northern Kyrgyzstan. These
regions constituted parts of the Western Turk Empire
[4]. In the eighth century when Tibet ruled East
Turkistan, the Tibetans also occupied eastern Kyrgyzstan, bringing with them early Tibetan
Buddhism.
[5]

Although Islam came to the southern part of these Central Asian republics in the ninth and tenth
centuries, and to the northern part in the eleventh, Buddhism was not totally eliminated in the
north. Islam was always weak there and mixed with shamanism and even Buddhism. The main form of
Islam throughout the region has always been Sufism, a non-doctrinal sect that emphasizes meditation
and a community of highly devoted practitioners living around a master.

The Dzungar Mongols
[6] of East Turkistan, who followed the Gelug tradition
of Tibetan Buddhism and from whom the Kalmyks broke away at the beginning of the seventeenth
century, had tent monasteries in the Semirechye region of eastern Kazakhstan, to the east and south
of Lake Balkhash, during the sixteenth to the mid-eighteenth centuries, and around Lake Issyk Kul
in Kyrgyzstan from the mid-seventeenth to the mid-eighteenth century. The Kalmyks also had tent
monasteries in many parts of Kazakhstan as they migrated across it to the Volga.

The Dzungars also built stone monasteries
[7] in the regions of eastern Kazakhstan surrounding Lake
Balkhash. These Gelug monasteries
[8] lasted until the mid-nineteenth century when
Kazakhstan was conquered by Russia. It is unclear whether some of these monasteries were built by
the Dzungars before their defeat by the Manchus in the mid-eighteenth century and they survived the
destruction, or whether they were built by the Dzungar refugees who fled to Kazakhstan after the
holocaust and inclusion of East Turkistan into the Manchu Empire of China. Some of them might also
have been built by the Kalmyks who returned from the Volga to East Turkistan at the end of the
eighteenth century, but who settled in Kazakhstan. The question is confusing since in Russian, the
Dzungars are commonly referred to also as Kalmyks.

Throughout the region, there are many indications of cultural borrowing between Buddhism and
Islam. For instance, Kazakh Sufis not only believe in rebirth, but also identify reincarnations of
past Sufi masters like the Tibetan and Mongol Buddhists do of their teachers. The Sufis build
shrines as graves for their masters, circumambulate them and light butter lamps, reminiscent of
Buddhists' practice around stupas of deceased masters. Sufi meditation includes recitation of the
Islamic equivalent of mantras, often combined with the breathing cycle, as well as visualization of
the Prophet and spiritual masters.

[1] The remains of two Parthian Buddhist stupas each have been
found in Turkmenistan at Mary (Merv) and near Ashkabat. Buddhist caves have also been found near
Ashkabat.

[2] The remains of Bactrian Buddhist monasteries have been
found near Termez in southern Uzbekistan at Kara Tepe, Fayas Tepe and Dalverzin Tepe, and the
remains of a stupa at Zormala and of Buddhist wall murals at Balalyk Tepe, both in the Surkhan
Darya region. Remains of a Buddhist monastery have been excavated at Ajina Tepe in southern
Tajikistan.

[3] Buddhist remains from the Sogdian culture have been found
near Samarkand at Yerkurgan, Uzbekistan, and Panjikent, Tajikistan. They have also been discovered
at Kuva in the Ferghana valley of eastern Uzbekistan. The remains at most of the Bactrian sites
mentioned above also extend into the Sogdian period.

[4] Findings have been made in the Taraz (Talas) River valley
at Sayram Kelye near Shymkent (Chimkent) and at Tektur Mas in Jambyl (Dzhambul) Province.
Archeologists are hopeful of finding Buddhist remains also at Kos Tobe near Taraz (Jambyl,
Dzhambul). Buddhist sites have been found along the Chu River valley at Kyzyl Uzen near modern
Cholpon Ata on the north shore of Lake Issyk Kul, and at Ak-Beshim (Suyab) and Balasaghun near
Tokmok (Tokmak) and along the Krasnoya River tributary of the Chu River.

[5] Around Lake Issyk Kul, some "mani" stones have been found
underwater near Karakol (Przhevalsk) and along the southern shore at Tamga Gorge, as well as at the
Julku and Barskaon Passes to the south and Issykata Pass to the north of the lake.

[6] Mani stones have been found from this period at
Tanglaly-Tas in Semirechye, at various sites near Almaty and at Zanka Gorge on the south shore of
Lake Issyk Kul.

[7] The remains of stone Dzungar Buddhist monasteries have been
found in Kazakhstan at Almalik, along the Ili River to the east of Lake Balkhash near the
Kazakh/Chinese border, and at Kyzyl-Kent near Jezkazgan (Dzhezkazgan), along the Sary Su River west
of Lake Balkhash. Along the Irtysh River, north of Lake Balkhash near the Kazakh/Russian border,
there was a great Buddhist monastery in Semey (Semipalatinsk) and the remains of another have been
found at Ablaiket near Ust Kamenogorsk. To the east of Almaty, along the northern face of the
Zailisky Ala Tau Mountains that separate Kazakhstan from Lake Issyk Kul, there were Buddhist
monasteries all the way to the present Chinese border, with remains at Talgar, near Almaty, and at
Sumbe in the Narynkol region on the border.

[8] The latest of them, a wooden monastery, was constructed at
Medeu (Medeo) near Almaty in the early nineteenth century.